“We believe that the question ‘What do I wear in space?’ will be a very real issue in the extremely near future,” said show organiser Randa Milliron, CEO of a Mojave rocket company.
The event was dubbed "Space Style 2007: A Giant Leap for Couture" and the Space Authority set the scene with a suitably torrid press release:
Aerospace engineers and scientists in their suits, winged-tipped shoes and white lab coats mixed with fashion aficionados in their stylistic garments and pastel-colored hair. The punker-set with lip-piercings and black nail polish toasted cocktails with straight-laced rocket scientists in white-collared shirts. Young and old swayed to the psi-trance/industrial music that pulsated through the venue and together they gazed upon the colorfully lit runway flanked by big screens with flashing images of deep space and Mars-like terrains.
Dress-down Tuesday in the astronaut corps.
There was a zero-G-inspired wedding gown and - get this - "braided up-do’s [sic] adorned with shimmering baubles and wispy florals". It says here.
Much use was made, we gather, of non-traditional spacesuit material such as "string, feathers, gartered stockings, wire, platform boots, stilettos, and even newspaper".
Best of all there were plenty of scantily-clad women. The whole business seems to have been rather more Barbarella than Apollo 13. The organisers pretty much admit it:
The... extravaganza featured... chic flight suits, albeit impractical for actual outer-space... The mostly-fitted fashions revealed plenty of skin, unlike the traditional baggy space suits of modern day astronauts. Although not particularly suited for the real-life environment of space, the collections were a melding of the creative and imaginative world of high-fashion with the engineering minds that are soon to bring commercial human spaceflight to the masses.
Opinion among techfashionistas was divided, with Wired magazine's Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides saying:
"All I know is - take me to that planet."
On the other hand, Aviation Week & Space Technology scribe Catherine MacRae Hockmuth poured scorn on the show, commenting:
"Oh. My. If this is the future of space tourism fashion, I'll stay grounded."
More pics here.
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Photo by Sam Coniglio
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Photo by Sam Coniglio
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Photo by Sam Coniglio
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Photo by Sam Coniglio
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Photo by Cathy Hart
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Photo by Cathy Hart
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Photo by Cathy Hart
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Photo by Cathy Hart